Heightened
media coverage on the issue of triple talaq along with the statement of the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Minister of UP Yogi Adityanath is
causing harm to the struggle for gender justice within the Muslim community. Media
coverage is making a public spectacle of victims of triple talaq and
encouraging voyeurism for TRPs. Media manages to get a “maulvi” of dubious
repute for giving sound entertaining sound bites that make buffoon of the
community. Gender justice within the Muslim community will be achieved primarily
by the struggle of Muslim women, of course with the support of democratic
institutions. Politicization of the issue to score brownie political points
will harm the cause of Muslim women. What Muslim women need is solidarity and
support from the feminist movement in particular and liberal democratic forces
in general.
Pronouncing
the word ‘talaq’ (I divorce thee) thrice
in one sitting and instantly snapping matrimonial ties unilaterally by the
husband is once again in news as the Supreme Court is going to hear Shayara
Bano’s petition on the issue and the PM has chosen to speak on the issue. This
form of divorce is called Talaq-e-bidat
(bad in theology but valid divorce) and popularly it is called as triple talaq.
The ulema (learned religious leaders of the community) have validated triple
talaq pronounced orally, even if in a fit of rage, in a state of inebriation,
or conveyed on phone, through sms, or through post. The wife so divorced is
instantly evicted from her matrimonial home or if not in the house at the time
of divorce, she is prevented from accessing her matrimonial home and children. The
practice is abominable and indefensible. Yet the All India Muslim Personal Law
Board has claimed in their affidavit that triple talaq is part of shari’a law
which is divine and it is their Constitutional right to practice their
religion. Elsewhere, we have elaborately argued that triple talaq in one
sitting is unconstitutional as well as contrary to the Quranic method of
divorce and prayed that Hon’ble Supreme Court read down the provision (Engineer, 2016).
Protectors
of Muslim Women
The PM chose to speak
on the issue of triple talaq at the BJP’s National Executive meeting in
Bhubaneshwar on 16th April 2017. He said, “Our Muslim sisters should also get justice.
Injustice should not be done with them... [I]f there are social evils, the society
should be woken up and efforts made to provide justice to the victims.” (TIMESOFINDIA.COM, 2017)
The Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Yogi Adityanath said on 17th April 2017 that those
maintaining silence on the “burning issue” of triple talaq were as “guilty”
as those practising it. Yogi compared the triple talaq to the
disrobing of ‘Draupadi’ in the Mahabharata. He also called for a uniform civil
code in the country (PTI, 2017).
Both, the PM and the CM
of UP, are trying to project themselves as protectors of Muslim women from the
evil and inhuman Muslim Personal Law. However both have a lot to answer for, given
their past. Under the watch of Modi, when he was the CM of Gujarat, in 2002,
during the riots, Muslim women’s bodies were the site on which sexual assaults
were mounted and they were subjected to worst inhuman atrocities. Neither of
them then had any feeling of remorse nor an urge to fight the injustice. Modi,
then the CM of Gujarat had to be reminded of his raj dharm by the then PM – Atal Behari Vajpayee of their party.
Gujarat Government refused to organize any relief work for the 150,000
survivors of the violence huddled in inhuman conditions in various relief
camps. The UP CM in one of the videos on youtube (FIRSTPOST., 2014) (IndiaToday.in, 2014) (ABP News, 2014) says that if one Hindu
woman was married to a Muslim and converted, 100 Muslim women would be married
to Hindu men and converted into Hindu fold!
Of
destruction of wombs and liberation of Muslim women
In 2002 during communal
riots in Gujarat, the Hindu supremacists who mounted sexual assaults and
heinous crimes on Muslim women’s bodies did so to pollute or destroy the wombs
of Muslim women that gave birth to children of Muslim community (International
Initiative for Justice in Gujarat, 2003, pp. 40-41). Now they are posing
as liberators of Muslim women from the oppression of their men. Modi then had
sort of provided justification of the riots by terming it as a reaction to
burning of Sabarmati Express in Godhara. Thereafter he never expressed his
remorse that under his watch the scale of violence had reached its peak. Those
who were accused of rapes and involvement in riots had little to fear the
judicial process and were being acquitted until the Supreme Court stepped in
and set up SIT to prosecute the accused. Bilkis Bano’s rape case trial was
transferred to sessions court in Mumbai which resulted in conviction of some of
the accused.
Behind the facade of
getting justice for the Muslim women in general and victims of triple talaq in
particular, the BJP has political motives. When the PM and the CM of UP were
not on the posts they are presently holding, they stigmatized the Muslim
community in harsher words using cruder language. In the year 2002, after the
riots Narendra Modi took out Gujarat gaurav
yatra (pride journey). In the yatra
he would address public meeting during and accuse that relief camps for riot
survivors to be breeding camps where the survivors were breeding like rabbits.
In the next Gujarat State Assembly elections, the target of the Modi’s speeches
was “Mian Musharraf (the then President of Pakistan) mentality”! The subtle
message was that Muslims were loyal to Pakistan and needed to be taught a
lesson.
Posing as protectors of
Muslim women, Modi and Yogi are achieving the same objective with more
sophisticated means – stigmatizing the Muslim community as one having unjust
traditions and women in the Muslim community are being disrobed. General
Secretary of Hindu Mahasabha – Pooja Shakun Pandey went a step ahead and asked
all victims of triple talaq to convert to Hinduism and she would organize their
marriage and do their kanyadaan
(ritual of father gifting his daughter to the bridegroom) (Jaiswal, 2017). The Hindu supremacists then want to
convert Muslim women and gift (marry) them off to Hindu men to improve their
demographic figures and reduce those of Muslim community. Rescue Muslim women
only to gift them off and be property of Hindu men. Hindu supremacists opposed
the Hindu Code Bill in 1950s so painstakingly drafted by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
to ensure gender justice to Hindu women. Hindu supremacists organized militant
protests and denounced Dr. Ambedkar as an untouchable drafting laws for Hindus.
The Hindu supremacists
do not problematize dowry, child marriage, female foeticide etc. Given caste
hierarchies, Hindu supremacists defend the parental control over their
daughters in matrimonial matters. They have never raised any voice against
honour killings when daughters dare to chose their own life partners.
“Anti-Romeo” squads and “love jihad” campaigns are precisely to ensure that
Hindu women do not choose their life partners and do not have freedom to wear
the clothes they like. Ministers in the present Government have advised women
to wear appropriate (traditional) dresses to be secure from sexual assaults
instead of ensuring safe space for women and inclusion in every field. BJP MP –
Sakshi Maharaj and RSS Sarsanghchalak
– Mohan Bhagwat called upon Hindu women to produce 4 children reducing the
women to child producing machines for their husbands and their community.
Hindu supremacists are
not very different from the religious and political leaders of Muslim community
with regard to their attitude towards worth and role of women in family and
community – chattels or property of the males within the family and under their
complete control; slave labourers for the family confined to home for unpaid
domestic work, rearing children for men; labouring outside home if men need
their incomes; confine them to religious spaces so that they are indoctrinated
to serve the men in the family and accept being reduced to chattels and slaves.
Triple talaq is one such weapon in hands of Muslim men to keep control over
“deviant” wives. Khap Panchayats, domestic violence and misogynist culture are
weapons of Hindu men. Strategies and instruments of control may differ slightly
but nevertheless their objective is to control and reduce women to chattels and
slave labourers and objects of sexual pleasure for men. Hindu supremacist talk
of “liberating” Muslim women, but only to enslave them to new masters – Hindu
men. The feminist movement and awareness and resistance of women – both – Hindu
and Muslim have changed the situation slightly and progressively.
Media
and stigmatization of Muslim community
Media has been
presented with an opportunity to increase their TRPs whenever issues that
stigmatize Muslim community are handy. TV channels a few years ago ran extensive
coverage of a fatwa which declared that Imrana who was raped by her
father-in-law is now forbidden to her husband. It seemed that was the only
problem faced by the nation – otherwise everything was hunky dory. One TV
channel made a public spectacle of Gudiya’s problems and coverage went on for
hours. Gudiya, a Muslim, married another man after her soldier husband’s
whereabouts were not known for some years and presumed dead in war with
Pakistan. However, her former husband returned after he was released from
Pakistan jail. “Gudiya kiski?” went
the title of the programme. All relatives, maulvis, the second husband and
former soldier husband and few others were assembled in the studio and public
spectacle was made of her life encouraging voyeurism.
All most all TV
channels have similarly conducted talk shows on triple talaq – they got some
victims to depose their tragedies, one or two maulvis to entertain their
viewers with their ridiculous and provocative views supporting triple talaq and
a few gentlemen around. The Islamic scholars who did not support triple talaq
were obviously not favoured by invitation. The stage was then set for a match
between the victims and the maulvis with some generous support from ‘nationalist’
anchors. The lung match between Muslim women and maulvis would be good
spectacle attracting eyeballs of male voyeurs into a problem of Muslims and
beam them various advertisements persuading them to buy various corporate
products.
The louder and angrier
the fight between the victims and maulvis, more would be the entertainment and
fun for the voyeurs. The BJP spokespersons would be there on the panel to
represent the PM and Yogi as heroes of the nation liberating Muslim women.
Perhaps that is why the media loves the PM and Yogi as they keep giving them
such opportunities targeting left and liberal “anti-nationals”, cow
slaughterers, terrorists, Kashmir separatist and Paki agents, religious
converters. Democracy and humanist values be damned so long as the voyeuristic
media had their TRPs, they would support whatever politics! Is this the
responsible fourth pillar of the state?
If Stigmatizing the
Muslim community is one objective of Modi and Yogi, subtly establishing the
superiority of Hindu community, the other political objective is to divide the
Muslim community along gender lines. They have also tried to win over a section
of Shias and Sufis. The political objective as spelled out by Subramanian Swamy
once is to divide the Muslim community and unite the Hindus to achieve the
objective of Hindu Rashtra – antithesis of democracy.
The
Muslim Personal Law Board
Cornered by the media
barrage and becoming a laughing stock for defending triple talaq and claiming
it to inseparable part of divine Shari’a law, the All India Muslim Personal Law
Board has come up with a new subterfuge. The All India Muslim Personal Law
Board (AIMPLB) on 16th April issued a code of conduct and warned
that those who give talaq (divorce) without ‘Sharia’ reasons will face social
boycott (Shaurya, 2017).
The ruse of social boycott is more for media consumption than a sincere
campaign to curb the menace of triple talaq. Had the Board been sincere, it
would not have filed atrocious affidavit in Supreme Court completely against
the spirit of Quran which gives dignity and rights to women. Board’s affidavit
reduces women to a status of chattel and a slave, unintelligent being.
This ploy of social
boycott has occurred to them after 70 years of resisting any change in the
Muslim Personal Law and ignoring the plight of victims of triple talaq. The
Board has clout and power enough to silence the women suffering oppression and
scaring them with curse of Allah. However, they do not have clout or sincerity
to enforce social boycott against powerful men. Declaring, announcing and
enforcing social boycott is also an offence in Maharashtra. Social boycott of
the husband who has pronounced triple talaq is not going to give any relief to
the woman thrown out of her matrimonial home. If a man has divorced has
pronounced the dreaded words in a fit of anger or under inebriation and repents
the morning after, will be doubly punished by social boycott if enforced or
enforceable without offering any relief to either.
Way
ahead
The only remedy
in the circumstances seems to be to educate the women and men that any number
of pronouncement of the word talaq can be considered as single pronouncement
followed by arbitration and efforts for reconciliation. This is the procedure
prescribed by the Holy Qur’an.
Either the Board agrees
to codify Muslim Personal Law within the framework of Quran and the spirit of
gender equality mandated by Quran and drawing the best from all Islamic Schools
of jurisprudence. The codified law should be presented to the Parliament for
being legislated.
Until the codification,
Indian courts have a constitutional duty to ensure justice and equality to
Muslim women and read down the provisions of various Islamic schools of
jurisprudence like Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi, Maliki, Ahle-Hadith and Shia schools
of Jurisprudence that are against the constitutional mandate.
Political parties will
do great disservice to the country and the Muslim community by politicization
of the issue either in the name of national integration or demography or on any
other ground. Peace and justice are more noble goals than winning an election
or benefiting from communal polarization.
